Lost
by Crazy Blonde Bitch
Summary: Logan has lost. He's lost some of his mind. lost the love of his life. and lost all of his sense of hygiene. But he is about to find that he hasn't lost as much as HER. UPDATED ALL CHAPTERS! Chapters 14 & 15 here! 16 coming soon. please read and review.
1. Logan

**LOGAN**

Logan, having watched the love of his life die for the second time in a year, was sitting in his set of rooms. His mane, taking over his head. He hadn't showered in a few days. Poor man. He had killed his love, and she had killed his friend, and his mentor. His belly rumbled with hunger and protest to how long it had been empty.

He kept running it through his mind, could he have saved her, saved the professor, saved Scott? Each time he got the same answer...No, they were gone. He wasn't there when Scott died. He couldn't stop a level Five mutant from killing Xavior. And he, himself, had to bury Adamantium into Jean's chest.

His tears fell as he remembered the smile that crossed her lips as she took her last breath. Jean was gone. For good this time. She wasn't coming back. Not this time. And that is how she wanted it.

Logan sat on his bed, weeping. He couldn't stop the tears. His heart was broken. His life was shattered. There was no end to his pain.

"It's so good to have you back, Emilee." Her mother told her. Emilee's brown eye's turned from her blood, the one who had turned her over to this monster. "You'll love it back at home, wont you, Honey." Emilee remained silent. Her mother turned to the nurse. "Please thank the doctor for me?"

"Oh, of course."


	2. Emilee

**EMILEE**

Somehow, Storm had gotten Logan to get out of his room and do something with his day. He grummbled all the way, but he drove Rogue, Colossus, Bobby, and Kitty to see Bobby's parents.

"Logan," Rogue started. He didn't say a word, so she continued. "I love you like a father and I-I hate what you've been doing to yourself."

At the word "love", Logan's eyes clowded. And so did his mind. He didn't hear Rogue sream, didn't feel her claw at his arm, nor did he see the car that he crashed into at full speed. He awoke when he jolted out the window.

The car had flipped over the X-men's car. Full of non-Mutants.

Logan stood fast to see who he had killed now. When he got to the car side, he saw an adult couple in the front seats. They were dead. "Damn it!" He yelled. "God damn it!" his tears fell. He had killed two people, as well as his love. He yelled and cursed and cried. Rogue, Kitty, and Bobby stepped out of the X car after Colossus.

The students looked to see what happened. They looked into the car and saw the dead. Rogue turned into Bobby's arms and Kitty turned into Colossus. They cried for the dead.

"Wait." Bobby had seen something move. Then he saw them, Brown eyes. "Logan! Someone's alive!" Logan turned and got ready to tear the door off, but he smelled something.

"Gasoline." He said. "Get away from the car!" The brown eyes exposed a face. Thin and female. She was young with blond, almost silver hair. Her eyes were pleading and full of fear. He ripped off the back door, the girl slid away from him. "Come here, I won't hurt you." He had to drag her out kicking, screaming, and punching. He set her down just as her family's car exploded.

She ran and dove for the flame cloaked car. She would have died had Colossus not caught her. "It's alright," He told her. " you're alive. You can mourn them later. You don't need to die. You're safe." He didn't know it, but he was wasting his breath. If only she could tell him as much. Emilee couldn't and wouldn't talk to anyone. She fought as he brought her to the X car. She stopped when they placed her in the seat behind the driver. A new suiside attempt.


	3. Final Attempt

**FINAL ATTEMPT**

She sat quietly behind Logan until she found her death. Targeting him alone, She hummed. She hummed a simple tune. The same one she had used with her father. Humming him to her will, he turned the car toward a building. They were going to hit it at seventy miles per hour.

But Emilee didn't know that she sat among mutants. She realized that this suiside attempt would also fail as the car, instead of crashing and burning, went through the wall and out the other side of the building. She stopped the tune and sat upright.

Logan immidiatly stopped the car in the ally. He had intended to take her to the hospital. He had called the police and told them of the accident, where to find him if they had further questions, and that the surviver was going to the hospital. Now he had to call them again to tell them that she was either dead or in the mansion. "What the Hell just happened!" he yelled, turning to the center of the car, facing everyone. He didn't like the fact that, if Kitty hadn't been in the car, they all would have died at his hands.

She didn't answer.

"You almost killed us." Rogue told him.

"No, she did." He turned to Emilee. She was covered in blood and dirt. "What the Hell did you do?"

Again, she didn't answer.

"She didn't do any thing." Kitty told him. "She was humming was all."

Emilee looked out the window. The sun was falling. Night will come soon. The first night in a long time, maybe ten years or more, that she wouldn't be tortured. A silver tinted tear found it's way to the outside world. Immediatly, Logan smelled the farmiliar tang of adamantium. 'Stryker' he thought. he had killed him the first time Jean died. He had left him chained to the wall, to drowned. "Don't kill us." Logan told her "We're taking you somewhere special." At those words, her eyes grew wide with fear. Those were the words her mother had used. Logan saw this and continued. "We all live there...It's nice."

She hummed a short, sweet tune, and some how they all felt safe again.

"Professor?" Storm looked up from her desk. Bobby stood in her doorway. "Are there any empty rooms?"

"I've told you, Bobby. All boy dorms are full. But I will tell you when you can have a room to yourself." She turned back to her stack of papers.

"Not for me, Professor. A new student." Storm looked up again. "Meeting her was bumpy and she's a bit overwhelmed. At first we didn't know she was a mutant. But then she tried to kill herself and us."

"Where is she now?" She stood.

"Infirmary. She's a tad bit battered from the accident, the one we think she caused."


	4. The School

**THE SCHOOL**

"Welcome to Xavior's school for gifted children." Storm told Emilee. "I am Professor Storm. What is your name?" They sat in the infirmary as Storm tried her hardest to make Emilee talk. But she wouldn't. Her mother had betrayed her with love in her eyes. She couldn't hate her for it, but she had killed her. She hummed a short tune to make Storm understand that no words would leave her lips. "You can Hum your mind." Storm had to think. "Can you hum so that we know your name?" Emilee hummed a short, harsh spot of a tune. " I know your name is not 'Curse'"

'It may as well be.' she hummed it so that it sounded harsh.

"Give us a name to use. We call Logan, Wolvarine because of his claws and name tags. I am called Storm for my power over weather. Give us something, be it your true name or one that you relate to." Her eyes were pleading.

Emilee thought for a minute, then in a soft tune she hummed...'Night n' gale'

"For the humming. It is Beautiful, Night n' gale." Storm was on cloud nine as she walked out of the infermary and down the hall, Emilee trailing her. 'We'll be getting you into classes soon, but first..." Storm opened the door before them. "Your room."

The walls were painted a rich rose red, the vase on the window sill was black with red and black roses in it, the bed was a twin sized master peice. Night n' gale hummed her approval. The room was her favorite color and dressed the way she would have wanted as a girl at home. Tears escaped her with no end as Logan stepped behind her.

She hummed a long little song that made Logan and Storm feel as she felt...wanted after a long time of never being so. Their eyes filled with tears, as Night n' gale stepped into her room. Their tears dried as she hummed her exitment, they caught her smile.

"I guess I don't have to ask, but, Do you like it?" Storm asked.

'No' Storm didn't understand. 'I love it...' tears continued to fall. 'No one...not even my mother...has treated me like this.' She ran into Storms open arms.

"All I did was give you a room." She laughed.

'That is all I've ever wanted.' she left Storm and jumped onto her bed laughing. 'All I've ever had was a pad to sleep on, a pillow as hard as the stones in the floor, and a blank room.' her tears never stopped. nor did she want them to...it had been so long.

The professors left her to cry, tears of joy and of mourning. She buried her face in her pillow, which was as soft as the clouds looked.


	5. the Dream

**THE DREAM**

Sleep fell on Night n' gale, and she dreamed. Logan stood beside her. In her dreams she would talk...they always told her something important.

"Hi." she said, her voice cracked from lack of use. "Why are you here?" His face told her that he didn't know why.

"You talked. You didn't hum. You talked."

"Yes...This is my dream, I can do as I wish." The empty space around them filled with wild colors. They flew by, never touching the mutants or eachother. Finally they took shape as a room with no windows. It was a work room. A room she knew all too well. And by the look on his face, he knew it also. "Do you know this place?"

"Tidbits of it. Memories that I don't remember. Do you?" she looked up to find his brown eyes on her.

"I do...I was leaving there when we met" She looked away from him, around the room. She found the clock. "10:20...oh-no."

Men in white coats filed in. They grabbed Night n' gale, and discounted that Logan was even present. She screamed and fought their holds. They layed her on the metal slab and strapped her down. She could nolonger yell, nolonger talk. she was in her past. A strap closed around her throat. She could breathe, but she could not hum.

Logan stepped up beside her to see what they did to her. She couldn't see him, If she had, she would have remembered it was a dream.

They poked and prodded. Injected Adamantium into her eyes. They would have killed her if her mother was not coming back to claim her. She was alone in all of this. Not knowing that Logan was holding her hand. The torture continued as it always did. Then it all went dark. She was in her dream again, but Logan was gone.


	6. Trust

**TRUST**

Night n' gale awoke with a sense that someone was seeking her. She stood as a knock came on her door. She flattened her hair with her hands as she opened it. Logan took up the whole door frame.

"I had a dream." He told her. "I took a nap and I dreamed. I dreamed that you talked to me. Then men took you...I don't know why I'm telling you this-"

Night n' gale stopped him with a finger to her lips. She hummed to calm his nerves. 'I lived it.' She hummed. 'I lived it for over ten years. You feel compelled to tell me because you want to know what truely happened.' She stopped as a silver, adamantium tear fell from her eye. Her hand fell from her lips. Her shoulders shook because she was all teared out. She couldn't hum around the knot that formed in her throat. She threw herself into Logan's arm, and he held her in the doorway as she tried to clear the knot. Finally she hummed to say she was alright. 'My mother took me to him. He said that he had a cure for the mutant gene.' Her voice was a spiteful one in his mind as she stepped back. 'He would have killed me.' He held her tighter as he smelled the adamantium of her falling tears that wet his shirt. 'His assistants would have killed me in his name after he was killed.' Her humming sounded paniced. 'I was so close to death! I-I was-I was...dead!'

"Shhh..." Logan pulled her in, tightly, as she cried. She had seemed so strong, so cold to the world when he met her. Now he knew that she was a girl who had been used, who had had no one to turn to. "You're safe here." He had never been one good at comforting anyone. "I'll protect you."

"Thank you." She spoke aloud before collapsing in his arms in exuastion, asleep. She finally had someone that she could trust with her voice.


	7. First class

**FIRST CLASS**

Night n' gale did not dream. She awoke in her blood room. She was alone, but not for long. Logan brought her dinner-in-bed. "You spoke to me." It was a statment as it was a question.

"I did..." Her voice cracked from lack of use. "I-I trust you...You must understand that my voice can be turned against me. I can trust only you with it. Don't tell any one. Please."

"I won't. You can trust me. "

"But I can trust no one with my true name, nor do I wish for that name to enter my life again."

"Why?"

"Because it is my past and I don't want my past to haunt me." 'My voice is tired.' She hummed, and started to eat the ham on the plate Logan had brought for her.

"Get your rest, Night. School starts in the morning." And he left her to eat alone.

A new day...and too many people for Night n' gale to handle. It was all overwhelming. It was like one extremely Large family. A family she was now a part of. Storm was their mother, Logan their father though mother and father had not that kind relationship. The other Professors and teachers were Aunts, and Uncles and distant cousins. And all the students were Brothers, Sisters, Very close cousins. One VERY large family.

Everyone knew she was nervous because she couldn't keep the hums back. It was a long, never ending, wavering note. No one caught it, but they knew her state...

"Welcome to 'Art'..."

"It's good to see you, Professor Logan." Rogue told him. She had missed him dearly. He was her favorite teacher.

"Get closer, and stay close. To the simulation room." As the students gathered around him, Night n' gale went to his left side and would have grabbed him, had he looked less forbidding. Hearing her long wavering note, he smiled at her. With his smile, He looked just friendly enough to calm her, and give her the strength to stop humming. What she didn't know was that her hand had found it's way to his. "Simulation on!" He shouted.


	8. Art

**ART**

The blank room turned and formed a practice room.

"Martial arts today." Logan told them, as Night n' Gale's hand fell from his. "You learn an anchant form of hand to hand combat. Those with some training on the far side of the practice hall. Those with none, stay around me." The class got extremely small as the ones who were trained left the less fortunate.

'I do have training.' Only Logan could understand the message. 'but I don't want to leave the farmiliar.'

"New kids also stay with me." He told them, Hiding his way of saying 'You don't have to.' "Pair up!" He listed names for the pairs...there was an odd number. Night n' gale had to pair with Logan...

'Don't go easy on me.' She hummed. 'I'm out of practice but I'm not out!'

"Begin!" Night n' gale attacked in a sequence of kicks and punches that she had learned in training with her captors. Logan was on the defence. He was well surprized by her strength and speed. He could find no opening. The class had stopped their own battles to watch. Night n' gale faught like a killer, yet he knew he was safe from death. She didn't want to kill him. She was only trying to loosen up. He found an opening and took it. By the end they flipped eachother and were both on their backs, out of breath.

'I told you I was out of practice.' Night n' gale hummed. 'If I had been in shape, You may never have found, and used that opening.'

After that Night n' gale was assistant teacher in martial arts under Logan. She corrected stances and positioned fists and showed how the flow of a punch is more important than the power behind it. 'It's all in the delivery.' She would hum. She would hum pictures into their heads of how it was to look if it were correct and if it was a disaster.

The class ended with moans and groans from aching muscle and wary bones.

"Night n' gale, Wait a second." Logan called from the empty simulation room. When She stood before him he continued. "Were did you learn all that?"

She looked around to find the door closed and no one in sight. "They wanted to test my speed, strength and balance." Her voice didn't crack as hard as before. "They had to teach me as much as they could for such tests." She looked away and hummed her last 'Their tests were kill or be killed.' She left him standing and wondering how many tests she had passed.


	9. White Rose

**WHITE ROSE**

The day passed quickly enough...under the circumstance of Logan trying to figure out how many people Night 'n gale had killed. They saw each other only once after her confession that day. When she saw him, he looked at her and she walked in the most opposite direction...turning on her heal to go the exact way she had come.

'She's avoiding me...' He realized. 'The only one she could trust...her voice.' He ran into the building in search of something to tell her, she could still trust him...

Night 'n gale entered her room at the end of the day. When she closed the door and turned around, she saw the vase on the window sill had a new addition. The roses were no longer just Black and Red, There was one perfect white rose in front with something silver hanging from it and a not next to the vase.

The note stated:

_We've all killed to survive. It's a war and I trust you at my back._

The silver thing hanging from the white rose was Logan's 'Wolverine' dog-tag. Night' didn't know that she was smiling, or that Logan was watching her through her door, which he had opened.


	10. Light and Tears

**LIGHT AND TEARS**

"Dinner." The PA system called over the mansion.

Quitly, Night 'n gale left her room, but she didn't follow the drones of students as they searched for food. She wasn't hungry. Instead, she went outside.

The night was clear and Night 'n gale wore Logan's dog-tag. It was a metalic cold against her chest and it gave her goosebumps. A few stars were out, shining for all they were worth, as Night' began to hum out how she felt, how her new life gave her hope.

Logan, having eaten early, went for a walk. When he heard thoughts that weren't his own, he stopped and listened.

'A new home. A new life. I am alive. I can trust and love and be human again.' Night's hums reached Logan from across the garden, he watched her through the fountain. She was dancing to the melody of her thoughts. 'I can live and laugh and love, Life is not over for me...' Suddenly, she stopped, her hands fell to her sides. 'But what of him?' Her humms held a hint of pain as her right hand flew to her neck. That was when Logan relized she was wearing his dog-tag. 'He is full of pain and sorrow...but why?' Logan could feel her confusion and pain. He didn't know what to do, should he leave? or walk out and open up to her as she had him?

"Night!" He made his decision, which scared both of them. Night 'n gale turned, startled at his voice. She quickly gained herself and looked around, searching to know that they were alone.

"Logan?" She said aloud. A blush rose in her face. "Were you listening?" When he nodded her blush deepened. "Oh..."

"I want to tell you." He said to her. "I want to tell you about her. But to me...It's like your voice...I am trusting you with a piece of me."

"I understand." the blush left her as they sat on the fountion ledge. The he told her all about Jean. How he had loved her, and how he grew closer to her, how a guy named Scott loved her, and how Logan and him faught for her, How she died, and lived, How she killed so many, and how he had killed her.

"She wanted me to." he ended. "She knew that I was the only one who could save her. And she smiled when I did." The whole time, Night 'n gale said nothing. She sat and watched his face. He looked down at the grass, tears falling, thinking how terrible he must look...a grown man...crying...

When He looked up, he saw tears on Night's face, neck, shirt, and his tags. Welling in both their eyes, wanting to fall. Night' lunged at him, hugging him around the neck. It took him a moment to register...he hugged her back.. They cried on eachother and the scent of adamantium filled the air.

"I'm sorry." he told her, apologizing for getting all emotional.

'No,' she hummed. 'thank you.' the air filled with her hums. They both looked up as light shown on them. Every place Night's tears touched was glowing. She stopped humming and they faded away. She met Logan's shocked eyes with her own.


	11. They've killed me!

**THEY'VE KILLED ME!**

Night 'n gale awoke with a gasp. Her nightmares were getting worse. The torturers had started to actually kill her. Sweat cloaked her in fear. But something else kept her soaked. Throwing the covers aside, Night' found blood coating her arms, hands, chest, and abs. The shrieks she gave were so fierce, her room shook and rubble fell down into her blood.

Logan was the first to her, having been walking by to find a drink. He ran in and covered his ears against the head splitting voice. He could think of nothing else but to cover her mouth with his hand. When he pulled away, she was done screaming.

"They have killed me." She was hysterical. "They have killed me." With each sob from her came a new gush of her blood and tears. "I'm dead. I'm dead!" Her voice was shrill and full of fear. "They have made me dead."

He grabbed her, thought about shaking some sense into her, but acted otherwise. He hugged her, and yelled over his shoulder to someone standing in the doorway. "Get Storm!" As the unknown person bolted down the hall, Logan turned back to Night 'n gale. "You're alive." He told her, Stroking her hair. "You are here, You are alive." he held her close as her adamantium tears poured form wide eyes. He continued to try and sooth her. "I'm here." he had resorted to it as everyone always does, He whispered it over and over. "I'm here, Night n' Gale, I'm here. You're safe her. You're safe with me." His mind was on want and wonder. 'Where was Storm? Where was the blood coming from? I want to find it.' But he needed to calm her. She was still frantic on the thought of being dead.


	12. Woundless and bleeding

**WOUNDLESS AND BLEEDING**

Storm ran in with a trail of staff and students behind her. She saw Logan with Night 'n gale wrapped in his arms. Blood soaked the pair. Storm only caught what was said in peices.

"..dead.."

"..safe.."

"..blood.."

"I'm here."

"They killed.."

"I'm here."

"I'm dead."

"It was a.."

"It's not a.."

"..dream."

Finally Storm entered the room. Trying to help, she took Night' from Logan. Her sleeping gown, the only one she wanted (because it was the only one that was black), was thick with deep red fluid. The black now had a tint of red to it.

As soon as she was in her hands, Logan began his search for wounds...she was still bleeding.

He tore away the gown. Her lower half was void of blood and covered quickly with a blanket. Her breasts and arms, her stomach and hands, were thick layers of red. Logan started whiping it aside...there were no wounds but the blood still came forth. he took a towel and whipped all the blood away...No wounds...she was quickly re-coated.

"Logan?"

"There is no wound! No cuts. Nothing."

"What do we.." She never finished that sentence. Night 'n gale had passed out.

"She's loosing too much blood."

"We have to stop it."

"HOW!" His face was red with fear and frustration…anger at Storm's statement of the obvious. "HOW DO I DO THAT! PUT PRESSURE ON THE WOUND! THERE IS NONE! What the HELL do I do!" He was short of breath. What could he do? All he knew was that he had to do something…She had trusted him with her voice. He couldn't let her die…not like this…not after Jean.

Without words, Logan took the sheets and blanket from the bed. He wrapped her up as tight as he could, ignoring Storm's protests.

"Logan! Where are you taking her?" Storm waited for an answer…none came…

'I have to get her out of here.' He let his mind run with wild thoughts. 'The smell…Adamantium…It's in her blood. They injected it in to her blood too…but…how? How does it stay liquid?' He continued to carry her through the halls of the school. He laid her on the fountain's edge. "What do I do?" He asked her. "What do I do?"

A stroke of genius brushed him as Night's eyes fluttered. He tore the fabric from her again. The blood came from her skin, so he wiped it away again. This time he watched the blood return…it came too quickly. He did it ten more times…finally he found what he longed to see… The blood came to her flesh in lines…like vines…no…

"Veins…blood veins. It's not staying liquid. It's solid." His tears had been long forgotten.

"Logan? What are you saying?" Storm had followed him and lost him around three corners…now she found him.

"They injected her with adamantium. I knew they placed it in her eyes…they also put it in her blood. I don't know how it stayed liquid this long, but it is becoming solid now. And the metal is pushing…and the blood is coming out of the closest thing…"

"…her skin." They finished together.

"We need to do something. We need to take it out, or we need to find a way to make it liquid again."

"Storm, once Adamantium becomes solid…it cannot be destroyed." Logan told her. "We need to remove it. We need to cut it all out…we need help." When Storm didn't say anything he was forced to think too. "We need Magnito."

"He lost his powers, Logan. He can't help us." They were loosing time…and blood. "We may loose her."

"We CAN'T! I won't. She trusts me, Storm. I can't let her down." He didn't say more…he couldn't. His dog tags were shining from under her blood. One question circled his mind after that…

'Is that what her veins look like on the inside?'


	13. Red metal dreams

**RED METAL DREAMS**

Black faded into pink as her world turned inside out. She was young again. She was in her childhood home…

"Emilee?"

"Yes, Mom?" It was reflex. Back then she loved her family…back then she trusted them…with everything…

"I was thinking about what you told me yesterday..." Her red hair fell around her face, making her skin glow. "…about being able to manipulate emotions."

"What do you need to know?" Night 'n gale watched her mother pace; her father just looked on from the shadows of his high-back chair. "What do you want from me?"

"I think we should get you some help…"

"Help? What kind of help, Mommy?" Night n' Gale, only now, looking back on the memory, realized that her mother cringed at her use of the familiar term. Night' wanted to growl and kill her over again. 'How dare she.' Her mind hissed. 'If she knew that they hadn't cured me, she would have left me to die.' "What kind of help do I need, Mommy?" Again she cowered at the word…like it burned.

"We found someone who can make you normal. Dr. Stryker says he can take it all away." The hope in her voice…it was a killer. It was making it so that Night' couldn't breathe…Her chest felt hard with hurt.

"But…Mommy." cringe "I don't want it to go away." The fear in her eyes at 'Emilee's' words…If looks could kill, she'd be dead.

"You will do as I say!" Her father had stood and the pain of his hand seemed more than it had felt before.

The growl that sounded next was not in her dream body's mind. Night' turned, blood flowing freely from her nose…there he stood…Logan! ...no, it was Wolverine. Looking down, Night' saw that the blood spatter on her dress…wasn't blood. It was liquid Adamantium tinted pink.

She looked back up to find her parents dead…blood coating Logan's claws.

Everything twisted

She was now in her room at the Stryker Institute…a.k.a…hell…

Blood covered the metal bed frame…the metallic walls and floors were spattered with it. The reason for the blood…it was one of her many escape attempts…cover the cell with blood…her blood…she lay on the floor…still bleeding.

Everything twisted again

She was in the car…humming her family to their death…they crash…the blood layered the metal frame of the family car. Then it exploded…she should have died…but he was there…he had saved her.

Everything twisted a third time

She had just woken from her worst dream…she was covered in blood…so were his tags. Blood on metal…red metal…the story of her life…of her death.

…

Logan had been there when she had not been…she had left her mind…and he was there…he had tried…he had tried so hard to get her back…even when she would have given up…

"I can't let her down." Logan looked up to her eyes just as they opened. "Night 'n gale—"

"I love you." She breathed as her eyes slid closed again. But she was still awake when his tears fell lightly onto her face. Then darkness followed.

Storm watched this, her gray eyes wide with shock. 'Could he possibly be over Jean?' His closed.

"We have to save her, Storm." His voice was low, soft.


	14. Cold Blood, Warm Metal

**Cold Blood, Warm Metal**

"Sarah, how is she doing?" Storm asked the onsite Doctor

"She's lost a lot. It's hard to keep up with." Dr. Sarah's voice was low, as if to Night 'n Gale from waking from her drug induced coma. "It would appear that Logan had it right. Adamantium is solidifying in her circulatory system. I have many concerns for her heart. As it stands, we have her on dialysis to filter out any remaining liquid metal. Pumping in new blood can only work for so long. We have to get some idea on how to remove the solid metal."

"What about surgery?" Storm was looking at the girl's pale face. She looked so frail. Intubated, four bags with blood, fluids, or medicine, and a feeding tube. Night 'n Gale was all but dead.

"Wouldn't work, we'd only end up killing her." Sarah lit up Night's x-rays for storm to look over. "We would have to cut into every vein and artery. Then open her heart, every chamber." The x-rays told the story clear as day. Her blood was thinning out, and they could see every vessel.

"So, what does that leave us with for options?" Storm asked, trying not to get frustrated. "What could we possibly do to save her life?"

"It leaves us with the fact that we cannot cut into her, and we cannot leave her as she is." Sarah was looking over the x-rays, searching for an answer that should just pop out. "If we had a way to go in, without cutting, and pull all the metal out, without damaging the surrounding tissue... but there is no way. The metal is likely fused to the lining of her blood vessels, and worse, her organs. I don't think we'll find a way to get any of it out without killing her."

"There has to be a way." Storm was so close to losing her mind, and patience, that she didn't even notice as Logan walked in.

"Pray, do tell why you are smiling?" Sarah perked up.

"I think I have an idea." Logan announced. "And I think it will solve all of our problems."

"Well, spit it out Logan! We haven't the time to waste!" Sarah urged as Storm stood in astonishment.

"Kitty." He said simply. They looked at one another, confused before Logan continued. "Night 'n Gale is running a tiny fever. Which means that the adamantium is warm, if not hot. And Kitty said that is perfect, because she would be able to discern it from everything else, mostly the bone."

"You've already talked to Kitty?" Storm was still confused and a little upset.

"Yes, and she thinks she can do it."

"How?" The doctor was intrigued, she didn't know this 'Kitty' girl. But if she had a gift that could help she was all for it.

"Kitty has the ability to walk through walls. Better yet, if she has a mind to, she can pull things through them or allow things to go through what she touches. She's done it with the jet." Logan explained to the non-mutant doctor, who was extremely fascinated. "We believe that Kitty might be able to reach in, grab the adamantium, and pull it out without hurting Night' at all."

"Might?" Sarah looked somewhat disappointed. "I don't think I can hang this girl's life on a 'might.'"

"Some testing, then." Storm compromised. "Metal wire through a steak? If she pulls it out without ripping the meat, will we be set to go?"

"She'll have to do them here, and we'll have to do it a few different ways. But if, no, when she passes the last test, we can go ahead and do it for real." Sarah finally had some hope.


	15. Touch Testing

**Touch Testing**

Kitty sat with four hunks of meat in front of her. Two boneless pork loins, two bone in rib racks. All having an item inserted for her to retrieve.

She reached her hand into the first pork loin. With her eyes closed, she felt around inside the uncooked roast. At first all she felt was cold flesh. It took her a moment to find the warm spot. Pinching, she pulled the warmth from the cold. When she opened her eyes, she found that it was a long, metal nail. It was warm only because it had been room temperature before driven into the refrigerated meat. Then she saw the meat. There was a small tear, when inspected through dissection, ran all the way to where the nail was placed. "Fail" Kitty admonished herself.

She pulled the second loin roast to her. Again, eyes closed, she reached in. This one had been warmed to body temperature, finding the warm spot would be more difficult. Succeeding where she had failed even more so. It took her a few moments to find the object hidden within. It had been heated before insertion and was incubated by the warm flesh around it, almost too hot to touch. She grabbed it with her whole fist this time, willing it under her power. Very slowly she lifted it out, like a stone, cupped in her hand, from a pool of water. This object, too, was a steel nail. Opening her eyes she inspected the meat. Not a mark on the surface. This nail was also dry and clean, where the first was slick with animal fat and fluids. Through Dissection they found that there was only a little damage to what would be Night 'n Gale's blood vessels. "Fail" Kitty sighed again.

Fearing she would lose her focus, no one scolded her for being hard on herself.

The first of the rib racks was room temperature. The object(s), unknown to Kitty, had been warmed only slightly. Eyes open this time, she reached in, got a feel for the bone and continued deeper. Slowly, she searched. Brow tight with intense focus. She could almost see where her hands were. She found the object, a chain link, faster than the last. She placed her left hand over her right and scooped the link out, slowly. She knew she failed when a crack rang in her ears. The chain link had cracked a rib, yet the flesh was unharmed. "Fail" her words said disappointment, but her voice and face said "Better."

The final meat cut was the exact temperature that Night's fever was running. Kitty plunged in, this time the object was easy to find. Chicken wire fencing, hot to the touch. Kitty willed herself to grab the wire in her fist, closing her fingers around the metal. Slowly she pulled the metal from the flesh, through the bones and out. Inspection revealed that no damage was done, to bone or flesh. "Pass." She smiled to herself as everyone congratulated her.

"One final test. To see if it will work with adamantium." Kitty grabbed Logan's hand and walked him through the table. "I'm ready." she looked Dr. Sarah in the eye. "Lets do this."


End file.
